[154] _Seanchus_.--From the old Celtic root _sen_, old, which has direct cognates, not merely in the Indo-European, but also in the Semitic; Arabic, _sen_, old, ancient--_sunnah_, institution, regulation; Persian, _san_, law, right; _sanna_, Phoenicibus idem fuit quod Arabibus _summa_, lex, doctrina jux canonicum.--Bochart, _Geo. Sæ_. 1. ii. c. 17. See Petrie's _Tara_, p. 79. [155] _Day_.--O'Curry, page 201. [156] _Works_.--He appears to have been the author of the original Book of Rights, and "commenced and composed the Psalter of Caiseal, in which are described the acts, _laws,"_ &c.--See Preface to Seanchus Mor, p. 17. [157] _Arrears_.--Elphinstone's _India_, vol. i. p. 372. [158] _Forbidden_.--"You shall not take money of him that is guilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith."--Numbers, xxxv. 31. [159] _Proved_.--See Pictet's _Origines Indo-Européennes_. He mentions his surprise at finding a genuine Sanscrit word in Irish, which, like a geological boulder, had been transported from one extremity of the Aryan world to the other. Pictet considers that the first wave of Aryan emigration occurred 3,000 years before the Christian Era. [160] _Writing_.--"Finally, Dudley Firbisse, hereditary professor of the antiquities of his country, mentions in a letter [to me] a fact collected from the monuments of his ancestors, that one hundred and eighty tracts [tractatus] of the doctrine of the druids or magi, were condemned to the flames in the time of St. Patrick."--_Ogygia_, iii. 30, p. 219. A writer in the _Ulster Arch. Journal_ mentions a "Cosmography," printed at "Lipsiæ, 1854." It appears to be a Latin version or epitome of a Greek work. The writer of this Cosmography was born in 103. He mentions having "examined the volumes" of the Irish, whom he visited. If this authority is reliable, it would at once settle the question.--See _Ulster Arch. Journal_, vol. ii. p. 281. [161] _Hand_.--A work on this subject has long been promised by Dr. Graves, and is anxiously expected by paleographists. We regret to learn that there is no immediate prospect of its publication. [162] _Quipus_.--Quipus signifies a knot. The cords were of different colours. Yellow denoted gold and all the allied ideas; white, silver, or peace; red, war, or soldiers. Each quipus was in the care of a quiper-carnayoe, or keeper. Acorta mentions that he saw a woman with a handful of these strings, which she said contained a confession of her life. See Wilson's _Pre-Historic Man_ for most interesting details on the subject of symbolic characters and early writing. [163] _Care_.--Annals of Boyle, vol. ii. p. 22. _Essay_, p. 82.